Eat and Be Merry Crew

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Saturday, March 19, 2016

88 Melbourne at the Australian Open 2016, by Obelix

A full memory card on my camera has prompted me to do some much-needed culling of photos! I forgot I had these gorgeous pics of my dinner at the Australian Open earlier this year and I want to share them with you now before they are forever deleted.

The tennis gods were shining on me this year when I was invited as a guest of P to attend the Australian Open Women's Finals in style. It was an edge-of-the-seat match to witness live with Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber but this post is going to focus on what preceded the game...the dinner. P and I were invited to dine at 88 Melbourne, one of the pop-up restaurants at the tennis. 88 Melbourne featured an a la carte menu with a smart casual dress code.

For the entrée, I decided on the Chef's special which was a vodka cured salmon. It was cool and fresh version of sashimi. Paradoxically the vodka gave it a lightness.
P decided on a Cajun spiced lamb for his entrée. It was executed well with the right amount of pinkness.

We also had an amuse-bouche. It was a spicy gazpacho soup to kick start the palate.

My main was not as exciting as P's. I ordered a free range chicken breast which was served with black rice, beetroot and interestingly, watermelon. The chicken itself was a tad dry. But I loved the black rice which had been pan fried to give it a smokiness. I'm not quite sure about the addition of watermelon though. It felt a bit incongruent.

P, on the other hand, indulged in a crispy pork belly. Well of course, it was wonderful, it would be hard to dislike a crispy pork belly of any sort. The meat looked juicy and tender and there was a bit of crunch to be had with the crackling.

Last but not least was the desserts. P went with the Chef's special which was a white chocolate panna cotta. The panna cotta itself was encased in a shell of white chocolate. Nice.

I could not resist a cheese board and was very happy with the selection of cheeses on my plate (two hard and two softs with one being blue).

Coffee and teas were offered before being ushered out right on time for the game.